Circle of Trust
by Teyerin
Summary: Minor two-part drabble of Bill and Danielle's views of events from the second episode: The Quick and the Dead.
1. Bill

Disclaimer: Don't own anything.

Thanks to Minarrett and McCoylover for suffering through – I mean reading this, too.

Circle of Trust

Bill Harken muttered a curse to himself as Dr. Rosen insisted on seeing the file. Damn fool was determined to 'walk the walk' as if nothing went wrong these last eight months. The first chance Bill had, he and the doc were going to have a proper talk.

Besides, the former FBI agent was the one who used every bit of his strength to keep the team together in Rosen's absence. Yes, Bill lost hold of Rachel, then Nina, and had completely lost Gary, however Bill couldn't be everywhere at once. He simply didn't have that skill – ordinary, Alpha or otherwise.

No, he had been the one on the inside, fighting the big, growing fight on the outside – a fight made harder by Rosen's selfish broadcast. Bill knew Doc didn't deserve what happened afterwards, no more than Gary deserved to be tossed into Building 7 of Binghamton.

But the team was together again, the broken circle mending. One issue Bill hadn't made up his mind about was Rosen's choice about taking the credit for Gary's time in Building 7. Gary placed in the middle of the protective circle (and there was no way in _hell_ that Harken would let Cley or any other division have the young man again), Bill felt like he was the only one taking in the _whole_ group –Nina and Cameron notwithstanding.

After discovering the dead body in the freezer at the abandoned packing plant, Bill had his reasons in requesting that Rachel Pirzad rest. She had been back with the team for the same short amount of time as Dr. Rosen. As the agent on point, he attempted to continue the adopted role of mentor and mental caretaker as well.

Of course Rosen would balk. Rachel's quiet challenge however caught Harken off-guard. The stunned feeling was short-lived as the team fell into step under his lead, Rosen benched from the next move on the case.

With Rachel alert and determined, Bill felt better that their active team had doubled – one member shy of perfect, but it wasn't as though anyone could tell Nina what to do. Granted, Bill shoud have known better than to trust the influencer to behave after her 'tiff' with Rosen. Rachel kindly filled him in on what was overheard, a kink in the mending circle.

"If you feel that way, maybe you should just go."

"Yeah," Bill said before leaving the room, before saying something or making a move either man would regret. Twice now, Rosen made such an idiotic, knee-jerk suggestion. The notion of 'loss of control' made him laugh. He did not take 'control' of the team in the wake of Rosen's absence. Bill _took care_ of them as best as he could. The same courtesy he was trying to reach out to the 'good doctor' now even as the absurd idea of using a cruel doctor as bait surprised him, Rosen never having been one to take unnecessary risks before.

If the agent didn't know any better, he would have said that Rosen was deflecting bigger, unresolved issues. There'd be a time when the reversed roles would be used to pry the pain away.

Doubling back to the office, trusting Rachel's instincts, Bill made a promise he hoped to keep. They had already lost Dani's father once. Damned if he would lose Rosen again. Thankfully Gary was on top of his game, finding Lee in time.

When the shot rang out in the church Bill's wavering trust in Cley's team thinned. The confrontation the morning after gave a chance of gaining distance between Bill's family and DOD's hovering. The admission by Rosen was a small step towards recovery, Bill thought, a step that he would not let the doctor take back.

The therapy session went smoothly that morning, granted, not the best start given the unnecessary death of the boy, Eli – almost as smoothly as Rosen's crafty 'dismissal' of Cley's team to the 3rd floor of the office building.

"The people in this room, including Nina, are the only ones you can trust," Rosen said. He looked to Bill for either understanding or approval. Bill gave a slight nod, intending to use that to his advantage – what goes around comes around - one way or the other.


	2. Danielle

Danielle

She imagined a Venn diagram drawn on a chalkboard, her place in the overlapping middle as each circle represented the men in her lives.

It was crazy, even now at her age how she enjoyed rebelling against her mother. The divorce was ugly, something Danielle Sophia had no desire to relive or experience for herself. That was one reason why she could never fully give herself to an intimate relationship. The other, whether she'd ever let her mother know or not, was because a small part of her parents' only child believed the nonsense her mother uttered:

Men could never be trusted.

Yet here she was, learning many great things from Stanton Parrish. In some ways, he reminded her of her father, trying to keep a fit body and a sharp mind. Their approaches were definitely different – Alpha ability versus homeopathic remedies, but attention to health was a common, intersecting element. Health and well-being of self and others.

Then there was the interest in Alphas. Here, Dani learned how Stanton was _leap years_ beyond what her father had learned, and that was what drew her to him. That and what he had to say was a soothing balm to the bitterness of childhood years at the infancy of her father's studies. Whereas her father's approach was more like invasion, Stanton's involved inclusion.

Not that her father hadn't changed over the years as he said when she conned him in his office, his new home-away-from-home. No, her father was doing what he could to get by, to understand, to help. When he admitted to manipulating her in regards to the 'camel-melee tea,' Dani almost regretted tricking him into taking the steps Stanton said were necessary, especially now that her father trusted her.

Visiting her father daily could have brought her closer to madness, passing the barbed-wired fence, thick doors, guards and alarms. It reminded her of the evils of Binghamton that Stanton and others had described. Yet her father's wilting strength, his confession that her visits were what had kept him sane kept her coming back. Because he needed her - and she needed him, even if it wasn't so perfectly shared or stated for quite some time.

And the there was Cameron Hicks. She knew her father would send someone to check in on her because that's what a parent would do. His trust in his team member, his patient, his friend – there were characteristics of the former-Marine that Dani liked, then loved.

To have someone be interested in her simply for _her_ sake and not manipulation of her abilities was endearing and wonderful to Dani. She enjoyed his company and so much more. Cameron understood her background, her challenges and he didn't pass judgment.

Some of these things she had shared with Stanton, things she had yet to tell her father. Dani frowned at that, wondering why it was easier to go to one man and not the other, why one took a sudden interest in the other's well-being.

Danielle pushed the concerning questions aside, thankful to have wider circle of people to trust, hoping, praying that nothing would disrupt that balance she finally centered herself into.


End file.
